The 50 Greatest Art Heists of all Time
By Courtney Willis | Feb 17, 2011 | 1:07 pm | Permalink
#9. The Russborough House is Robbed Again, in Six Minutes
Stolen: Johannes Vermeer, "Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid"
Francisco de Goya, "Portrait of Dona Antonia Zarate"
Peter Paul Rubens, "Portrait of a Dominican Monk"
Gabriel Metsu, "Man Writing a Letter"
Location: Dublin, Irleand
Year: May 1986
Worth: $50 Million
John Boorman's 1998 thriller, "The General," illustrates the exploits of Irish criminal mastermind Martin Cahill, who robbed Sir Alfred Beit, who appears on this list twice for having his art stolen. A crew of 13 pulled off the biggest art theft of the time in six minutes, stealing 18 paintings belonging to the millionaire collector. Cahill was never charged, although he was behind the whole heist and sent the pieces all across Europe. He denied dabbling in drugs—his brothers were convicted on heroin charges in the 80s—but one of the Vermeer paintings was found after it was smuggled to Antwerp and used as collateral on a loan from a diamond dealer to buy drugs and a Gabriel Metsu piece was given in exchange for a drug shipment in Instanbul.
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Steven February 18th, 2011 at 04:04 AM
First off this is a pretty terrible article, its is interesting but some one who reads this article will most likely want to hear what happened to the painting, how it was stole or how the authority's have no idea wtf happened. Instead this article is a complete let down it says the very lest amount about each heist possible and a in a few case nothing about the heist at all. Secondly, who gave the writer of this article this list of heist? because its utterly uninteresting these are some of the lamest heist I've ever heard off and as someone who is pretty well verst in art history I have to say check your facts some of these aren't even true.
dr.octogon February 19th, 2011 at 12:21 AM
While I agree with your sentiment Steven, you have the spelling and grammer of someone severely mentally challenged.
Big Red Machine February 19th, 2011 at 02:04 PM
While I agree with you, doctor, I must point out that you spelled GRAMMAR wrong. That might be the funniest shit I have seen in a while. Irony is a bitch.
LFMAO@dr.octogon December 11th, 2011 at 04:58 AM
LMFAO @ dr.octogon What a fucking fail OMG you must feel so stupid right now!